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Doug was born in Washington DC and now considers Boston, the home of much of his family, his home away from the field. Jen was born in Dundee, Scotland. She would consider home away from the field to be a small town called High Wycombe, just outside of London where her parents live. Although the more that we are on the field the more abstract the term home becomes!

We met in Germany at a Youth Conference in December of 2001 when Doug was working in Romania and Jen was studying nursing at Nottingham University, England. We were married in July of 2003 in Salisbury, England. In October of 2006 our son Jonathan Edward was born in Lima, Peru. In October of 2008 our daughter Sarah Elizabeth was born in London, England. Yes, we are a truly international family with 7 passports between the four of us

We are currently transitioning from Lima, Peru to Tirana, Albania. Our previous assignment in Peru was to work within the Peruvian Field Office. Doug assisted the field director, Segundo Rimarachin, who is the first Peruvian to be in leadership over the field. He worked in many different areas from speaking and teaching, to office administration and field finances. Jen was the Child Sponsorship Coordinator, working with over 300 children and their sponsors. We also hosted many people who travelled through Lima for Work and Witness teams, Field visits and personal travel in what we affectionately termed “The Mann Motel”.

Our current assignment takes us to Tirana, Albania. After a year of language and cultural studies we will be working with the Albania-Kosovo team and national leadership in development efforts. As with most assignments we will be involved in many different areas of work from education through compassionate and outreach efforts. We are very excited about the new opportunities and challenges.

Hello from KOSOVO!!
For having only been living in Prishtina for little over a month we
are feeling surprisingly settled in! Our “personal” Work and
Witness team (Jen’s parents) came to help us juggle the
unpacking, home improvement projects and the kids.
They were a huge help. We feel part of the family of
believers here. Everyone is very helpful and welcoming. We are
also pleasantly surprised to feel the same way about our
neighbors! The community in which we live is small and full of
families that have dwelled here for years. Many of them
have welcomed us with cakes, gifts, practical help and advise. We
are excited to see what becomes of some of the new friendships.
As always, Jonny has his following of little friends who come to
our gate and call for him to come and play! Jonathan will be
starting a local “Kopesht” (Preschool) this month and we are
praying that he settles well into it and starts to communicate well
in Albanian. He is so friendly and is a true help to our work here as he builds
relationships.
As per usual, life has been busier than simply moving house
again. The end of September saw the 10 year anniversary of the church here in
Kosovo. It was truly exciting to see the history of where the group of believers
have come from and been through as well as hearing their dreams and visions.
We were able to host friends from Scotland along with my parents (yup, we have
lots of room, you are more than welcome to come and visit!), and the whole
weekend was wonderful. May God continue to work in and through the believers
here in exciting and miraculous ways!
Straight after the anniversary, we jumped into cars and headed
down to Macedonia for the South Eastern Europe Field Conference. It was a
wonderful time to meet together with old friends from Doug’s time in Romania.
We were able to truly rest and rejuvenate as well as be challenged and
encouraged by the topics covered by the guest speaker Geoff Crosno.
We are excited about the months and year to come. We are
committed to support the believers one a week in Suhareka, a village and hour or
so across the mountains from Prishtina. Jen has started doing a kids program
there. Please pray for her and if you have any suggestions on material that would
help her she would be very grateful! It is a small but growing group and we are
especially praying that some of the believers spouses will make commitments in
the coming months. We are excited to be supporting the Prishtina Church. Doug
is out almost once a day meeting the believers at their coffee breaks and has
started accountability, prayer and discipleship relationships with some of the guys.
Along with the day to day ministry, during the six months we will be hosting some
teams from our Nazarene Universities who will be coming to both do work
projects and have a class together with our Kosovo/Albania Extension Education
scholars. There will be a marriage retreat for our young couples, Doug will be
attending a special event specifically to equip people working in countries such as
ours, and of course there is our home assignment from Jan-March!
People often ask us what we do… what our roles really are. With
every new assignment the roles definitely get more complex. Here in Kosovo we
are the only World Mission employees, so as far as WM initiatives and roles, we
are it here. We work with a great group of national leaders and believers on a day
to day basis and we are excited to see how our work here at the grass roots level
of ministry develops. If you, or anyone that you know, would like to come to
Kosovo as volunteers or as a W&W team then just let us know! If you want to
come and just visit and see what exciting things are going on then come on
over… we love to host!
As usual we will keep our website updated with specifics that you
can be praying about with us. Thank you for your ongoing support and
encouragement and prayers. We appreciate your involvement in the ministry
here. Grace & Peace, Doug, Jen, Jonathan & Sarah

The highlights go something like this…. Dunkin Donuts Coffee, home cooked meals cooked for me (Jen), some excited churches ready to get behind us & Kosovo with prayers and support, family, friends, bagels, new clothes that FIT (two pregnancies later and Jen’s wardrobe didn’t quite work anymore), Snow…
A few lowlights… snow, SNOW, and more SNOW (canceling several services & get togethers with friends), a broken down car on one of the coldest nights of the year, a very unsettled Jonathan who asks at least twice a week to go home to Kosovo, a car wreck (which Doug escaped from with just whiplash)…
We are surviving, enjoying, thankful for blessings and hopeful for endurance to get through 2 more months of Home assignment.

Our continued prayer is that the enthusiasm, excitment and hope found in the believers of Kosovo will touch folks here and those called to support His people there will get involved!

Box Work, now known as LINKS (Loving, Interested Nazarenes, Knowing and Sharing) began on the Southern California District in 1916. The Box Work project grew until, in 1922, a Box Work Committee of three was appointed with Mrs. Paul F. (Ada) Bresee as chair.

In 1976 the LINKS program was introduced, expanding Box Work to the "adoption" of a missionary (active or retired) or missionary family. This involves praying for them, writing letters, providing cash for personal needs, and remembering them on birthdays, at Christmas, and on anniversaries. In 2004 approximately $307,000 was received for 550 missionaries through LINKS.

To effectively pray for missions and the missionaries, personal involvement is essential. The missionaries assigned to your district have given or are giving their all to follow the Great Commission.

A LINKS cash assignment is given for clothing and household article needs. However, the primary emphasis of LINKS is the loving prayer support of Nazarenes worldwide.

1. Pray regularly for your LINKS missionaries and their work in church services, prayer meetings, missions services, personal devotions, etc.

2. Correspond regularly with your LINKS missionaries, assuring them of your prayers and support. 3. Inform missionaries when sending a package, so they will know the date it was sent and what the package included.

4. Appoint one contact person who will correspond with the missionaries and share responses with the church. Do not expect a missionary to respond to every card and letter. A missionary is asked to correspond quarterly and to acknowledge the receipt of packages.

5. Send all LINKS money (assignment amount, as well as any personal cash gifts) to Global Treasury Services in Kansas City for Ten Percent Credit. Gifts sent directly to the missionaries are not eligible for Ten Percent Credit.

Unofficial LINKS provides additional opportunities for connecting with missionaries by providing some of their "wishes." Some examples are: rolled bandages, sample medicines, linens, school supplies, sewing needs, used clothing, greeting cards, and literature. The NMI Office compiles these requests each year. Send only items listed on the current year's unofficial list.

The updated lists are sent to all district LINKS coordinators in time for their district NMI conventions. The lists are "current" from March to March. All unofficial LINKS requests are listed on the NMI Web site <www.nazarenemissions.org>: "Involvement," "LINKS," "Unofficial LINKS Requests."

Send $2.00 to Global Treasury Services for every LINKS and Unofficial LINKS package sent. Checks should be made payable to "General Treasurer" and sent with your local church's remittance form.